Sintered members are used as machine parts in various applications, such as automobiles, OA equipment, and home appliances. Sintered members are suitable as materials of complex three-dimensional products because sintered members can be produced to have good mechanical properties, such as strength and abrasion resistance, and have shapes similar to final products.
With the trend toward reduction in weight of machine parts, there is a need for sintered members formed of more lightweight materials, and thus materials containing aluminum alloys have been proposed. For example, PTL 1 discloses a liquid phase sintered aluminum alloy formed so as to contain hard particles in an aluminum alloy for the purpose of achieving high strength and high abrasion resistance. This liquid phase sintered aluminum alloy is produced by compacting a mixed powder of an aluminum alloy powder and hard particles to form a green compact, subjecting the green compact to liquid phase sintering to give a sintered body, and further subjecting the sintered body to sizing and heat treatment.